1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to treadmills, and more particularly, to a supporting structure that is used in a treadmill to connect a treadmill foundation and a treadbase.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional treadmill comprises a foundation lying on the ground, an upright member carrying an instrument panel and a treadbase, wherein the treadbase is swingable with respect to the foundation, so that a user can upright the treadbase for convenient storage. For allowing such folding operation, the conventional treadmill typically is equipped with a supporting structure that serves to hole the treadbase at its upright position.
In the related prior, Taiwan Patents 435241 and M242233 each provide a supporting structure that includes two tubes telescoped with each other and a manually operable knob for selectively positioning the two tubes with respect to each other. Since such a design requires a user's manual operation of the knob for adjusting the supporting structure in length, when intending to release the treadmill from the upright position, a user has to operate the knob with one hand and support the treadbase with the other hand, so the operation is far from being convenient.
Taiwan Patent No. 578575 has disclosed another supporting structure, wherein two telescoped tubes are selectively positioned with each other by means of pins and holes. Nevertheless, it has the similar disadvantage as manual operation is also required therein. Taiwan Patent No. M365758 adopts the concept of the immediately preceding disclosure, but additionally uses a pedal for a user to pedal and thereby control pins in the supporting structure.
Another prior-art supporting structure as disclosed in Taiwan Patent No. M308761 implements a lever to replace the known combination of a pedal and pins.
While the development of the supporting structure has been led from the two-hand-required operation to the pedal-driven mechanism, the existing devices must have the pedal or any other driver exposed outside the tubes of the supporting structure unless a user can not access the pedal. This causes the existing designs to be not good enough in appearance and complicated to process and assemble.